Buzz Coil: August

Here’s what we found buzzin’ on some blogs recently:

Evoking the Goddess: Thanks to blogger Paul for his terrific coverage of the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury, England, beginning with a pre-conference presentation by Max Dashu, "Woman Shaman," and continuing through days 1 to 5 of the conference plus a postscript, and ending with a link on August 15 to "BBC Coverage of Goddess Conference." These (I didn't link to them all but you'll want to read them all) posts include comments on Lydia Rule’s banners, dances led by Allesandra Belloni, talks and workshops galore, celebration of Lady Olivia’s (Fellowship of Isis) 90th birthday, cronings, a Saturday night masked ball, and the Sunday morning procession to the top of the Tor. With terrific photos!

Pagan Godspell: Sara Sutterfield Winn has a series underway on "Pagan Inquisition," which isn’t at all like the historical European Inquisition that did away with non-Christians. Sutterfield seems to be using the term in a less baggaged way, to simply mean"inquiry," though, come to think of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some double entendre intended. The series starts on Aug. 5 with "Nobody Expects the Pagan Inquisition" and so far has two additional posts.

Panthea has a neat new design with a Goddess quote from Beethoven (who woulda guessed?). On August 17, blogger Grian, posted "Dancing Under the Moon," , which begins:

I danced under the Maiden moon tonight, spinning like a child beneath the branches of old cottonwoods.

On August 21, she blogs about "Restlessness" and boredom. So why not mosey on over and give her something to "wow" her?

Katrina’s Joy: Katrina Messenger toys with the idea that perhaps there's too much sexual metaphor in the western magical tradition and wonders "what would have happened if the reigning metaphor had been birth instead of copulation" in her post, "Cosmologies: Sex versus Birth." (Is it really an opposition?)

The Wild Hunt: Jason Pitzl-Waters, in his continuing terrific job of rounding up lots of Pagan news, tells us about a new program at Cherry Hill Seminary, which is geographically located in Vermont but also functions online, in his Aug. 17 post, "A Pagan Chaplaincy."

Textual Arachne: Blogger Arachne discusses "Three Faces" of Goddess: Divine Transcendence, Divine Immanence, and Goddesses (polytheism) in her Aug. 14 post.

Radical Goddess Thealogy: On Aug. 3, Athana blogged out a special missive "To Anti-War & Climate Change Activists" about the relationship between their interests and religion, and in her August 19 post, "RU Worried Yet?" , she alerts us to a scary group.

DiscernIt is Christian blog that has been running a series titled, "Crisis in the Church." Part 5, on Aug. 13, is dedicated to getting the folks in the pews stirred up about the threat of Goddess worship . It's followed on Aug. 16 by Part 6, "The Wiccan" , which includes the "problem" of Wiccans using a prayer room at a Kansas City IHOP. I backtracked this blog to see what the previous crises in this series were, but honestly there are so many crises discussed on this blog that they really can't be limited to the series. As near as I can tell, the series crises are General Unrepentence (part 1), New Age (parts 2 and 3) Reiki (part 4). Other unnumbered crises-centered posts include those on yoga, Taize (contemplative spirituality) and Theosophy. I'm going to focus here on Part 5, Goddess Worship, which has many links about which to aggravate oneself. Of particular interest is a link to Athana’s blog, Radical Goddess Thealogy, and to an article at Chalcedon that warns of a "serious problem: that Goddess worship has "crept into all of America’s mainline Protestant denominations." (Wow! Really?) Blogger Kim concludes thusly:

The above list of denominations is frightening. The feminist movement has a great deal to do with the infiltration of goddess worship in the church and according to the occult world the New Age that is dawning will be a feminine age. The feminine goddess is being accepted in the liberal church and prevalent in witchcraft, especially Wicca....
All these issues from Yoga to Goddess worship involve the same principles. These principles that range from the altered consciousness to contact and worship with the spirit world, lead us away from Christ....the world will be ready to accept the Antichrist with open arms. He will fit right in because the world is now being prepared for his arrival.
Are you ready? Are you wearing God’s spiritual armor and using his Word to defend yourself or are you spiritually compromised by involving yourself in the occult world?
There are only two choices!!!!